


phoenix

by kalypsobean



Series: B2MeM 2014 stories [3]
Category: The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Implied Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-20
Updated: 2014-03-20
Packaged: 2018-01-15 11:24:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1303102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kalypsobean/pseuds/kalypsobean
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Legolas reflects on the remains of the world he is leaving behind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	phoenix

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Back to Middle Earth Month](http://b2mem.livejournal.com) 2014 for prompt: Lapland (picture prompt).
> 
> Quote from 'The Lord of the Rings' Book Five Chapter 3, 'The Muster of Rohan'.

 

The world is changed; not only in the snow that falls in the dry, arid lands south of Gondor and the birds migrating from the East, over the wastelands of Mordor, but in its elemental, mercurial nature. There is nothing for him here; his brethren have sailed and he could not wait out the winter in the shelter of Imladris, mourning in empty rooms, not when Gondor has moved on and he can find no solace in even the craft of those who have passed before him. 

He has been swept away by tears and goodbyes for so long that it is only now that he hears it, faintly, like an echo carrying from a deep cave to the surface. The world is made from stone and metal, a change blessed by the trees which now stand silent and filled with regret. They no longer speak, not amongst themselves, not on the wind, and the animals who live in them no longer chatter. There is nothing for him to hear, and he is bereft.

It is only in this silence that the emptiness makes itself known, when the familiar touch of magic on his skin is truly gone, along with the part of him that could draw it from the ground and bring life back into places scorched and broken.

There is nothing for him to leave behind when he pushes his boat from the shore and leaps aboard.

 

_The way is shut. It was made by those who are Dead, and the Dead keep it, until the time comes. The way is shut._

The words echo in his memory, though he has not thought of the path beyond the Dark Door in many years and cannot remember where he heard them. The Sea is as foreboding as the Dimholt, though just as the trees had calmed him then, the sound of the gulls echoes within him like a second heartbeat, low and even and beyond his control. He had thought he could see land on the horizon, but darkness comes on a chill breeze and there is nothing ahead; he is sailing from the unfamiliar to the unknown, and he feels doubt.

The water seems to fall out from beneath him and he is weightless, dreamlike; he is suspended in the air and then he is falling, burning.

The gulls fall silent, too, and the sun rises over Tirion.


End file.
